Simone Luzzatto Socrates, Or On Human Knowledge Studies and Texts in Scepticism Edited on behalf of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies by Giuseppe Veltri Managing Editor: Yoav Meyrav Editorial Board Heidrun Eichner, Talya Fishman, Racheli Haliva, Henrik Lagerlund, Reimund Leicht, Stephan Schmid, Carsten Wilke, Irene Zwiep Volume 8 Simone Luzzatto Socrates, Or On Human Knowledge Edited, translated, and commented by Giuseppe Veltri and Michela Torbidoni The series Studies and Texts in Scepticism is published on behalf of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies ISBN 978-3-11-055753-4 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-055760-2 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-055835-7 ISSN 2568-9614 Library of Congress Control Number: 2019935651 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Cover image: Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg, Ms Cod. Levy 115, fol. 158r: Maimonides, More Nevukhim, Beginn von Teil III. Typesetting: Dörlemann Satz, Lemförde Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck www.degruyter.com Contents Preface VII Introduction 1 Synopsis 15 Chronology 19 Note on the Text 21 Socrates, Or On Human Knowledge Dedication to the Doge and the Council 27 To the Reader 29 Subject 31 The Charge against Socrates 41 Socrates’s Defence 45 Draft Resolution concerning Socrates 483 Giuseppe Veltri The Deceit of the Senses: Sight and the Mirror 520 Michela Torbidoni What Does Philosopher à l’antique Mean to Simone Luzzatto? 530 Bibliography 542 Index of Names and Places 562 Index of Sources 565 Index of Major Topics 570 Preface “Called by Nature to walk this mundane path, I deemed it appropriate to leave a trace on it, even though I believe that after a short while, the passage of others will spoil it or time will erase it. Nevertheless, I do not care much about this, because I will have done my duty.” With these words, Simone (Simḥah) Luzzatto, rabbi and philosopher, began his Socrates, Or On Human Knowledge, the first sceptical treatise of the early modern period to be written by a Jew. This work, written in the vernacular and signed by the author describing himself as a “Venetian Jew,” unfortunately did not manage to “leave a trace” to its expected audience in the philosophical tradition. Luzzatto’s Socrates began to receive the attention it deserves only recently, thanks to the revised Italian edition published in 2013 and to some new important studies. We are now proud to present the first English translation and commentary of this book, together with two accompanying studies. Every translation of a philosophical work is, as is well known, a transfer of philo- sophical ideas and concepts, systems and strategies from one universe of thought into another. Therefore, this result must be interpreted as the beginning of a vital concern with this topic and not just as the same text in another language. We hope that this new English edition will enhance a renaissance of Simone Luzzatto’s philosophical legacy, which stands out for its sceptical inquiry into human learning and knowledge. We also expect that this work will contribute to the study of early modern scepticism and will motivate new fruitful studies on this author and his intellectual framework. Furthermore, we are confident that this publication will have a strong impact on the still-pioneering research into Jewish scepticism which is the focus of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies, founded in 2015 at the University of Hamburg thanks to the generous financial support of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). This publication has been a large undertaking, which we were able to accomplish thanks to the seriousness and hard work of all the people involved. We would like to express our gratitude in particular to Katharine Handel for her thorough language editing, her accuracy, and her kindness. We are especially grateful to our colleagues and friends Guido Bartolucci and Josef Stern, who kindly read through an earlier version of this book and shared their valuable comments with us. We also want to thank Andrew Berns, who was especially helpful in unravelling some very difficult passages of the book, and Lawrence Kaplan and Tony Lévy for his useful suggestions. We also want to thank Yoav Meyrav for his editorial supervision and Anna Lissa for her long-standing contributions to the study of Simone Luzzatto. We are grateful to Albrecht Döhnert, editorial director of the De Gruyter publishing house, for his support and Sophie Wagenhofer, acquisitions editor at De Gruyter, for her helpful advice in all production matters. Special thanks are due to our colleagues and to the fellows of the Maimonides Centre, in particular Bill Rebiger, and to Daniel Davies, who suggested several impor- https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110557602-001 VIII Preface tant and learned improvements. Finally, we are very grateful to all the people who helped to organise the “Sceptical Atelier” on Luzzatto’s Socrates (22–24 May 2017), and to all the scholars who participated for their comments and advice. Hamburg, November 2018 The editors Giuseppe Veltri and Michela Torbidoni Introduction The Book and Its Legacy Socrates, Or On Human Knowledge (Socrate overo dell’humano sapere) was published in Venice by Tomasini’s printing house in 1651. The scope and purpose of the work are indicated in the book’s extended title: The Serio-Ludic Exercise of Simone Luzzatto, Venetian Jew. A Book That Shows How Deficient Human Understanding Can Be When It Is Not Led by Divine Revelation (Esercitio seriogiocoso di Simone Luzzatto hebreo venetiano. Opera nella quale si dimostra quanto sia imbecile l’humano intendimento, mentre non è diretto dalla divina rivelatione). Luzzatto achieved this goal by offering an overview of the various and contradic- tory gnosiological opinions that had been disseminated since ancient times: he ana- lysed the human faculties, namely the functioning of the external senses, the internal senses (common sense, the imagination, memory, and the estimative faculty), the intellect, and also their mutual relation.¹ His work gives an accurate analysis of all of these issues by getting to the heart of the ancient epistemological theories. The diver- gence of these views, to which he addressed the most attention, prevented him from giving a fixed definition of the nature of the cognitive process. This obliged him to come to the audacious conclusion of neither affirming nor denying anything concern- ing human knowledge, and finally of suspending his judgement altogether. The book embodies a strong stance against dogmatic knowledge and its authority – of which philosophy is a part – and contains the promise of a genuinely sceptical investiga- tion into the validity of human certainties. The pattern of Luzzatto’s arguments and the many metaphors and images which enliven his Socrates were strongly inspired by Sextus Empiricus’s Outlines of Scepticism. The ten tropoi lead his inquiry through the subjectivity of human perception, a source of continual illusion, or the incon- stancy of the state of the whole, up to the final acknowledgment of the inscrutability of any object by itself.¹ Like Sextus, Luzzatto is persuaded that suspension of judge- ment (epochē) is the correct attitude towards the world, because every statement is subject to irreconcilable conflicts (diaphōnia). Equipollence, which demands the suspension of judgement that in their opinion restores peace of mind or tranquillity (ataraxia), reigns in every inquiry that sceptics undertake.2 Luzzatto’s philosophical 1 On the impact of Sextus Empiricus’s Outlines of Scepticism on Luzzatto’s Socrates, see Michela Tor- bidoni, “Il metodo del dubbio nel Socrate di Simone Luzzatto,” in Filosofo e rabbino nella Venezia del Seicento, ed. Giuseppe Veltri (Rome: Aracne, 2015), 183–245, and Giuseppe Veltri, Alienated Wisdom: Enquiry into Jewish Philosophy and Scepticism (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018), 217–24. 2 On the legacy of Pyrrhonism, see Richard H. Popkin, The History of Scepticism from Savonarola to Bayle (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003) and The High Road to Pyrrhonism, ed. Richard A. Watson and James E. Force (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1993). https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110557602-002 2 Introduction investigation demonstrates that he was well acquainted not only with these and the many other aspects of Sextus’s Outlines, but also with the Academic scepticism of Carneades, whereof Cicero’s Academics is the chief source. The “probable” (from the Greek pithanon) plays a major role in Socrates: Luzzatto does not hesitate to define it as the “North Star in his journey through life,” showing himself thus to be consistent with the sceptic’s instruction to follow the probable in the absence of truth. Next to the many indirect references to ancient scepticism, the great impact of Michel de Montaigne’s Essays on Luzzatto’s work must not be overlooked. The foot- notes of the present edition of the text refer to the many passages, examples, images, and verses taken from the ancient poets, as well as one from Estienne de La Boétie himself, which have also been noted in Montaigne’s Essays. Although Luzzatto never made direct reference to Montaigne’s name or work, these parallels may be consid- ered an interesting starting point for further research on this topic and on the many philosophical and religious implications of the highlighted similarities between these two authors. Montaigne’s modern scepticism – based, like Luzzatto’s, on ancient sceptical thought – reverberates throughout Socrates, although Luzzatto does not miss the opportunity to reinterpret it in light of the new challenges of his era, such as the scientific discoveries and the collapse of many ancient certainties. Furthermore, like that of Montaigne, Luzzatto’s philosophical commitment may be considered a wise defence and celebration of free thinking beyond any dogmatic restriction.